RJI in the News

Can you imagine what it would have been like to be at the Canfield Green apartments when Michael Brown was shot? Graphic journalist Dan Archer can. He's created a virtual representation of that day based on eyewitness accounts, news reports and grand jury testimony.

The event expands on AP’s efforts to connect academics and media professionals in an open exchange of data and ideas. For example, AP hosts a series of media seminars that brings together some of the world’s leading media scholars. In collaboration with the Reynolds Institute, AP is planning other events in 2015 that will seek to stimulate discussion and inform news industry transformation.

The digital transformation of media has upended both journalism and journalism education. While traditional news media were slow to “get” the interactivity of the Internet, educators have as a rule been even slower. In my digital book, “Searchlights and Sunglasses,” and talks at the Reynolds Journalism Institute at the University of Missouri and elsewhere, I’ve called for the teaching hospital model of journalism education and better ways of tracking change.

March 30-31, 2015: Matt Lindsay, president of Mather Economics, has been invited to speak during “Dissecting Engagement: What’s Working and What’s Next?” sponsored by The Missouri School of Journalism and the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute at the University of Missouri.

The place-based feeling of VR is particularly important for stories depending on a sense of space and perspective. The Reynolds Journalism Institute (RJI) at the University of Missouri experimented with an animated VR approach to cover eyewitness statements in the Michael Brown shooting in Ferguson, Missouri. A walk through their output, helmed by graphic journalist and RJI fellow Dan Archer, shows some of the possibilities of VR for journalism.

Columbia, MO – Newz Group will be working with the University of Missouri Libraries and Reynolds Journalism Institute to create a database that will preserve newspaper and born-digital news content. Thanks to a $35,000 grant from the Knight Prototype Fund, this pilot project will produce a viable and sustainable news repository in conjunction with RJI’s Journalism Digital News Archive.

I'm currently a fellow at the Reynolds Journalism Institute at the University of Missouri, where I'm experimenting with producing immersive transmedia pieces for newsrooms who can't afford to do so themselves. My latest project involves creating a virtual reality reconstruction of the Michael Brown shooting in Ferguson, allowing users to experience each of the eyewitness perspectives from where those people were standing via comics panels that load when the user reaches a specific beacon in the 3D environment.

Students in the Fort Osage High School Journalism Department are now “backpack journalists,” an emerging form of journalism that requires a journalist to not only be a reporter, but also the photographer, videographer and editor.

Knight News Challenge has given a $35,000 grant to the University of Missouri Libraries and the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute to come up with a model to make sure "born-digital content" doesn't disappear.

In September we launched the 12th Knight News Challenge, on libraries, asking the question, “How might we leverage libraries as a platform to build more knowledgeable communities?” Today we’re announcing 22 winners of that challenge, awarding the recipients a share of $3 million for their ideas.

A $35,000 grant from the Knight News Challenge on libraries will help University of Missouri Libraries and the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute develop a long-term model to protect born-digital news content from being lost forever.

These scenes are from a new interactive graphic novel by U.S.-based journalism fellow Dan Archer that tells Bird’s story — of her upbringing, her pain, and a horrific attack last year that robbed her of independence.

The Reynolds Journalism Institute at the University of Missouri will host a free-speech symposium next week to discuss a number of issues arising from the Jan. 7 terror attack at Charlie Hebdo, a satirical French magazine.